This Week's Tour...
...met at 9:00AM Saturday on the Beltline Eastside Trail near Parish (R.I.P...soon to reopen as "Painted Park"!). We walked for 1 1/2 hours, covering 1 mile of the Beltline, ending at Ponce City Market.
"The Tourists"...
...shouting out to this week's tourists, another good-sized group braved the cold, including brand new Atlantans as well as Morningside neighbors!
Map of the week...
...1960's era I-485 route proposed to connect downtown with (what is now) SR 400 to the north and Stone Mountain to the east. The project was officially shutdown in 1975 by then Governor Busbee, but not before hundreds of homes were acquired and demolished thru the eminent domain process.
To many, freeway projects can have many negative impacts (displaced locals, divided communities, increased traffic/pollution), but I feel that this story has a silver lining. The end result of the cancelled project included: The formation of neighborhood civic groups that continue to provide feedback and guidance to the Atlanta City Council and the creation of several new parks:
3) John Howell Park
Tree of the week...
...singling out one of the hundreds of specimens from the dozens of collections along the arboretum.
In this case, the entire genus "Magnolia"! Many of us are familiar with the grand, native, evergreen Magnolia grandiflora or "Southern Magnolia", but planted in a gorgeous, flowering alley running north along the Beltline from Ponce City market to about Greenwood St are several showy, non-native but non-invasive, species. Definitely check them out now thru March!
"Stump" of the week...
...featuring a question raised during the tour that Jeff couldn't answer.
